For six months now, Jane Kaushik, 32, a school teacher with a double master’s in political science and English, has been teaching at a private boarding school in Hyderabad.Forced to resign by two private schools — one in Uttar Pradesh and the other in Gujarat — in the span of a year (2022-23) due to her gender identity as a transgender woman, Jane, originally a resident of the national capital region, filed complaints starting in 2022 against these schools that culminated in a case in the Supreme Court. On October 17 this year, a Division Bench formally recognised that private enterprises were not allowed to discriminate against trans persons.The Court also ordered the two schools and both state governments to compensate Jane with Rs 50,000 each. Besides appointing an advisory committee to assess the implementation of the Transgender Persons (Protection of Rights) Act, 2019, and its corresponding Rules (2020), the Bench also recommend a “viable equal opportunity policy… to be introduced by the Union and state governments” within three months of the submission of the draft policy. For establishments lacking their own guidelines, the Centre’s policy will be enforceable.“It’s a powerful verdict. It gives a framework for the execution of rights (guaranteed). It is a watershed judgment in many ways — it’s like Vishaka vs State of Rajasthan (which led to laws on addressing sexual harassment in the workplace),” says Dipika Jain, executive director, Centre for Justice, Law and Society, O P Jindal Global University, who was a part of the team that worked with Jane as a legal advisor on the case.On the SC-appointed committee, comprising notable trans women and activists like Grace Banu and Akkai Padmashali, Jain adds, “There are no trans men or trans lawyers (on the panel), which is not ideal. But it is what it is.”While the SC’s judgment sets an important precedent in matters related to employment and anti-discrimination — both of which still pose a significant challenge for trans persons in India — Jane expressed her disappointment with the verdict. “I am not very happy with this judgment. I was getting paid Rs 45,000 at the UP school and was out of a job for eight months,” she says.In 2023, she finally received an offer letter from the Gujarat school. However, after the school learnt that she was a trans woman, it not only denied her employment, but also entry on the premises.Story continues below this ad“If I hadn’t been forced to quit, I would have earned lakhs by now. This (the compensation) is not enough money to keep me afloat. If you want to teach the school or the government a lesson, you should have at least made them pay,” she says.As far as Jane is concerned, her story is not an anomaly, but the “standard” for trans persons in India. However, unlike many trans persons, when she first came out to her family in 2018, her parents and two younger siblings were mostly supportive. She said they held her hand through the process, including her transition and her gender reassignment surgeries.When Jane started looking for jobs after completing her graduation in 2022, she was turned away by three-four schools: “My job applications received fixed responses: either complete silence or a rejection or a job offer as long as I hid my gender identity.”Unable to help with family expenses, she said the atmosphere at home soured. After things came to a head, Jane had to leave home.Story continues below this adShe says, “Because of the relentless discrimination (and consequent unemployment), my family regretted supporting me in my coming out journey as a trans woman. I have not seen my family in almost three years. (At first) Survival was so difficult. Only I know how I managed it. I lived on the street, even resorted to begging and sex work.”Even at her current job, the residential school in Hyderabad, Jane has had to keep her gender identity under wraps.“That was the school’s precondition. I want to work in Delhi-NCR, but had to travel across the country to secure a job. I am more than qualified for this job, but I joined the Hyderabad school because it was the only one ready to take me.”According to Jane, bureaucratic and political unwillingness create bottlenecks when it comes to the community’s acceptance.Story continues below this adShe says, “Unless the political class engages with the community, nothing can be accomplished. Delhi didn’t even have a transgender welfare board (which the Rules mandate). Where are the grievance redressal mechanisms within the CBSE (Central Board of Secondary Education)?”Many provisions that the new SC committee has been tasked with implementing were mandated by the National Legal Services Authority vs Union of India (NALSA) judgment — a 2014 SC ruling that legally recognised trans people as the third gender, and affirmed their various rights, including constitutional rights — and the Trans Act and Rules.Declaring trans persons a “socially and educationally backward community”, the NALSA judgment had ordered that reservation, both at the Centre and in the state, be put in place to empower trans persons.In 2021, Karnataka became the first Indian state to offer horizontal reservation to trans persons. Even as Madhya Pradesh (2023) and Odisha (2021) started some form of reservation for the community, High Courts in West Bengal, Delhi and Kerala issued directives between 2024 and 2025 for the implementation of NALSA-guaranteed reservation in their respective states.Story continues below this adIn June this year, 11 years after the NALSA judgment and over five years after the Trans Act, Chief Minister Rekha Gupta announced the setting up of a Transgender Welfare and Empowerment Board in Delhi, along with larger efforts to build third-gender washrooms in government buildings and dedicated hospital wards, and to provide gender-specific health services in government hospitals.Given that transgender persons are a minority, in both numbers and in politics, Jane said she is not very optimistic about the future. “Why would the government bother with us? For people and the state, we are aliens. We are objects, we are invisible.”According to her, the solution to dealing with the stigma lies in representation. Jane says, “Today, in a government office or in a university, you see men and women working and studying, but no trans persons. For the mainstreaming of trans persons, their interactions with the common man need to become commonplace. To achieve this, the state needs to ensure that trans persons are employed and educated.”Trans activist Grace Banu, the face of the movement for horizontal reservation in India for the community, says, “We need horizontal reservation (cutting across all caste-based reservation categories). Trans people come from all communities and deserve to ask their government for their rights. If the public sector employs and educates us, it’s only a matter of time before private bodies also accept us.”Story continues below this adFor now, Jane plans on continuing with her job in Hyderabad. “Everyone goes home for the holidays, I don’t. I have no home. I am just trying to ensure my survival in the present. Since this is a private school, the hours are gruelling and I get no time to prepare for my future. I want to keep studying, get my PhD and prepare for UGC-NET to become a professor. Getting a government job is one of my dreams.”